deared to him than any of his disciples. After remaining some time with the Virgin Mary in his house at Jerusalem, to whose care she was committed by our Saviour probably till she died, he travelled to preach the Gospel in Asia Minor, and was perhaps the founder of the seven churches in Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, &c. mentioned in his Apocalypse. From Ephesus he was carried prisoner to Rome upon account of the doctrines he taught there. John was condemned to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, but, being miraculously preserved, he came out of it alive. This circumstance took place before the gate of Latina, ante port. lat.; hence the abbreviation, A. P. L. After this, he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote his Revelations; but being recalled by the Emperor Nero, he returned to Ephesus, and there penned his three Epistles. Lastly, he composed his Gospel, to supply the omissions of the other evangelists, some few years before his death. He survived to the reign of Trajan, and died about 90 years of age.

15. ROGATION SUNDAY.

This day takes its name from the Latin term rogare, to ask; because, on the three subsequent days, supplications were appointed by Mamertus, Bishop of Vienna, in the year 469, to be offered up with fasting to God, to avert some particular calamities that threatened his diocess.

19. ASCENSION DAY, OR HOLY THURSDAY.

From the earliest times, this day was set apart to commemorate our Saviour's ascension into heaven. All processions on this, and the preceding rogation days, were abolished at the reformation; yet, in order to retain the perambulations of the circuits of parishes,' ELIZABETH enjoined the following ordinances First, that the people should once a-year, namely on this day, walk about the parishes, with the curate, and other substantial inhabitants, as

usual, and at their return to church make their common prayers. Secondly, that the curate in those perambulations, should, at certain convenient places, admonish all those who accompanied him to return thanks to the Almighty for the prospect they had of God's benefits, and for the increase of his fruits upon the face of the earth; and sing some psalm suitable to the occasion. At the close he was to pronounce this denunciation: Cursed be he who translateth the bounds, &c. of his neighbour. In London, on this day, the minister, accompanied by the churchwardens, and a number of boys, with wands, walks in procession, and beats the bounds of the parish. But this is not always practised, nor in every year.

19. SAINT DUNSTAN.

Dunstan was a native of Glastonbury, and nobly descended; Elphegus, Bishop of Winchester, and Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, being his uncles; he was also related to King Athelstan. He was a skilful painter, musician, and an excellent forger and refiner of metals: qualifications so much above the genius of the age in which he lived, that he was first reputed a conjurer, and afterwards a saint. His uncle Athelm recommended him to the court of Athelstan, where he continued for some time; but, disgusted with the life of a courtier, he took the monastic habit, and retired to Glastonbury. Here he built for himself a small cell, 5 feet long, and 2 broad, with an oratory, adjoining the wall of the great church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In this hermitage he spent his time in prayer and fasting; he had also his hours for manual labour, in which he manufactured crosses, vials, and sacred vestments: he also painted and copied good books.

Dunstan was promoted to the see of Worcester by King Edgar; he was afterwards Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury. He died in 988, in the 64th year of his age, and in the 27th of his archiepiscopal dignity. He was successively

confessor to Edred, Edwy, Edgar, and Edward, kings of the West Saxons, and was bold enough to reprove his royal masters, if they transgressed the bounds of decorum. Edgar having been guilty of a scandalous crime, the Archbishop enjoined him a seven years' penance, during which term he was never to wear his crown, was to fast twice a week, to give large alms, and to found a nunnery: the king submitted to all these conditions, and endowed a rich monastery of nuns at Shaftesbury. In 973 the term of the penance expired, and Edgar was recrowned by Dunstan. The monks relate, that he made himself a bell at Glastonbury, all of iron, at his own forge; that his harp played spontaneously without a touch; and that Satan appearing to him in the shape of a beautiful female, he took this lady by the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs.

19. QUEEN CHARLOTTE born.

Her present Majesty (Princess Charlotte, of Mecklenburgh Strelitz) was born on the 19th of May, 1744; but her birth-day is celebrated on the 18th of January.

26.-AUSTIN.

This English apostle, as he is termed, was commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the Saxons. He was created archbishop of Canterbury in 556, and died about the year 610.

27.-VENERABLE BEDE.

Bede was born at Yarrow in Northumberland, in 673, and afterwards instructed in the Greek and Latin languages, in which he made a surprising proficiency. He was author of several very learned philosophical and mathematical tracts; as, also, of long and laborious comments on the Scriptures. His grand work, however, is the Ecclesiastical History of the Saxons. Being a monk, he studied in his cell, where spending more hours, and to better purpose than most of the monks did, it was re

ported that he never left it. So much attached was he to his retirement, that he would not quit it for any preferment at Rome, to which the pope had often invited him. Bede has obtained the title of Venerable, for his profound learning and unaffected piety, and not on account of any celebrity for miraculous and angelic operations.

29.-WHIT-SUNDAY.

On Whit-Sunday, or White-Sunday, the Catechumens, who were then baptized, as well as those who had been baptized before at Easter, appeared, in the antient church, in white garments. The Greeks, for the same reason, call it Bright Sunday; on account of the number of bright white garments which were then worn. The name of this Sunday, in the old Latin church, was Dominica in Albis, as was the Sunday next after Easter, on the same occasion. On this day, the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles and other Christians, in the visible appearance of fiery tongues.

29.-KING CHARLES II RESTORED.

On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II was proclaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. On the 16th he came to the Hague; the 23d he embarked with his two brothers for England, and landed at Dover on the 25th, where he was received by General Monk, and some of the army. He was then attended by numbers of the nobility and gentry to Canterbury, and on the 29th he made his magnificent entry into London. This day is also his birth-day.

In some parts of England it is customary for the common people to wear oak leaves covered with leafgold in their hats, in commemoration of the concealment of Charles II in an oak tree, after the battle of Worcester. In this tree, not far from

Boscobel House, the king and his companion Colo

nel Carlos resorted, when they thought it no longer safe to remain in the house; climbing up by the henroost ladder, and the family giving them victuals on a nut-hook. This tree was some time afterwards inclosed with a brick wall, and the following inscription, on a marble tablet, placed over the door :

"Felicissiman arborem quam in asylum potentissimi Regis Caroli II, Deus O. M. per quem reges regnant hie crescere voluit, tam in perpetuam rei tantæ memoriam, quam specimen firmæ in reges fidei, muro cinctam posteris commendant Basilius et Jana Fitzherbert.

Quercus amica Jovi."

From this tree Charles carried some acorns, and set them himself in St. James's Park, where he took pleasure in watering them. The original oak has long since paid the debt of nature, and its place is said to be supplied by a thriving plant.

Blest Charles then to an oak his safety owes;

The ROYAL OAK, which now in songs shall live,
Until it reach to Heaven with its boughs;

Boughs that for loyalty shall garlands give.

The king's strange dress on this occasion is thus described in a note to his own Narative of his wonderful Escape, pp. 29-31. He wore a very greasy old grey steeple-crowned hat, with the brims turned up, without lining or hatband: a green cloth coat, threadbare, even to the threads being worn white, and breeches of the same, with long knees down to the garter; with an old leathern doublet, a pair of white flannel stockings next to his legs, which the king said were his boot stockings, their tops being cut off to prevent their being discovered, and upon them a pair of old green yarn stockings, all worn and darned at the knees, with their feet cut off; his shoes were old, all slashed for the ease of his feet, and full of gravel; he had an old coarse shirt, patched both at the neck and hands; he had no gloves, but a long thorn stick, not very strong, but crooked three or four several ways, in his hand;